I popped into my local HMV again today and they had one copy on the shelf. I cracked and bought it, even though it's now the second copy I've purchased. And..Holy heck, it's bloody wonderful!! The DVD menus are gorgeous, the little stabs of music as you switch between options is great. I've just watched episodes 14, 15 and 16 and I'm seriously impressed with the way the 'ad break' has been edited out - I would have thought that would have jarred with me but its seamless. It's been years since I've seen the US videos so I can't remember if they were done as well...One final comment. I DON'T like the comic book - the new colours are revolting and it should have been left black and white...

>What did you write?Dear Aaron,I would like to thank you for taking the time to allude to my Star Fleet fan-game; X-Bomber, in issue 24 of SciFiNow magazine. I must say I found the magazine's review of the DVD release difficult to stomach. 2/5 would perhaps have been accurate but the deck seemed stacked against the series from the outset given your expose on page 104. There were various references to series that were produced much later than Star Fleet, made in a way that suggested that the show had somehow travelled forward in time and copied from them. Even though Enoki Films threatened to sue me down the phone I must confess I see no way in which they could have put more effort into their DVD release.I would have made these points on the forum, however I was unable to sign-on due to a ridiculous system of "choose the furry animals" and after a handful of attempts the forum then blocked my ability to sign up completely.Regardless, I wondered whether you might be willing to offer our website and game a shameless plug, perhaps on your letters page.Yours faithfully,Piers Bell - www.xbomber.co.uk

(Serenity @ Jan. 31 2009,21:40)QUOTEI read the Sci-Fi Now article earlier. I have to admit, it irked me. SFX are much better when reviewing retro stuff like this. They usually farm the review out to someone who remembers the show with fondness.Well that appears to about right. The latest issue of SFX includes a review of the DVD box set. I can't remember it word for word, but it was along the lines of "Star Fleet has not aged well .... but there is still something very special about it". I think they gave it 3.5 out of 5, which is at least an improvement on the 1 out of 5 that SciFi Now gave it.My DVD arrived yesterday, so I'll try to watch some of the discs over the weekend and post my feedback, especially on the picture quality which is consistently criticised in the magazine reviews.James

(jamesaevans @ Feb. 13 2009,23:03)QUOTE
(Serenity @ Jan. 31 2009,21:40)QUOTEI read the Sci-Fi The latest issue of SFX includes a review of the DVD box set. I can't remember it word for word, but it was along the lines of "Star Fleet has not aged well .... but there is still something very special about it". I think they gave it 3.5 out of 5, which is at least an improvement on the 1 out of 5 that SciFi Now gave it.I haven't read SFX this month yet but that seems like a pretty spot-on review to me!! Nice email to SciFiNow, Crash..

I had chance to watch the first episode this morning and here are my first impressions.The DVD menus are rather disapointing. It looks like someone who has never used 3d modeling software before has rendered the frames with the default material and lighting. They are functional and responsive, but could have been better.So onto the image quality. I selected the first episode and the opening titles started playing. I was instantly disapointed by the image quality, there was more noise and pixelation that I expected. I can see where the commets in the magazines relating to poor image quality come from. However, as soon as the opening titles finished and the episode began there was a significant increase in image quality. There was very little noise and the image was very clean considering the age of the source material. Colours were good and the detail sharp. Looking at the hair on the puppets heads/facses you can see every strand. The sequences in space were not quite as sharp but still looked very good.So overall a slightly mixed bag, but the most important element, the episodes themselves look to have cleaned up very well. I'm very happy with the DVD box set and look forward to watching the whole series over the next couple of weeks.I have a feeling that some of the magazine reviewers may not have got past the opening credits, hence the number of comments relating in poor image quality.James

^^ Spot on. That pretty much mirrors my impression as well. Got to say though, either way, the DVD contains the best version of the episodes in terms of them being unedited and the visual and audio quality. They're much better than the US VHS or ebay VCD versions.They're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but given the source material I'd say that they've done the best that they can. I think once you get past the initial disappointment, the visuals as you say are quite good for the most part.

Well, if it's the best digital version out there, then it'll do, my US videos are knackered.I still think there is a dream project for some-one's own personal pleasure to either fan-sub X Bomber into English or replace the Japanese soundtrack with the UK one. The X Bomber original footage was shot on film and is very clear and colourful, to the point where you see nearly every wire used for the model shots. Star Fleet's original masters have always had a slightly washed out video look to them even from first transmission, so in effect the FF people were remastering a second generation copy from the outset.

The picture quality is miles better on the Japanese X Bomber DVD's - I did take some caps before I sold the set but wish I had taken some more really. Maybe one day I'll find the set again, though I doubt it unless I have a lottery win.And I don't do the lottery